Katy to open next large water park, dubbed 'Typhoon Texas'

Updated 4:29 pm, Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Katy's "Typhoon Texas" waterpark is planned to open in May, featuring a 25,000-square-foot wave pool, a 1,345-foot lazy river and more than 13 rides and attractions.

Katy's "Typhoon Texas" waterpark is planned to open in May, featuring a 25,000-square-foot wave pool, a 1,345-foot lazy river and more than 13 rides and attractions.

Photo: Courtesy Katy Typhoon Texas

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Typhoon Texas' children's play structure will be 48 feet tall and contain 250 feet of elevated walkways and rope bridges.

Typhoon Texas' children's play structure will be 48 feet tall and contain 250 feet of elevated walkways and rope bridges.

Photo: Courtesy Katy Typhoon Texas

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The founders of Typhoon Texas promise the park will be the"greenest" ever, with filters that will save more than 20,000 gallons of water per week and chlorinated water that will not be dumped into public utility systems.

The founders of Typhoon Texas promise the park will be the"greenest" ever, with filters that will save more than 20,000 gallons of water per week and chlorinated water that will not be dumped into public ... more

By the time the scorching summer days begin in Houston next May, Katy will become a destination city for all regional residents looking for a major cool off, as well as theme park amusement.

A groundbreaking ceremony Aug. 18 held on a 25-acre plot next to Katy Mills Mall revealed the suburb is getting ready to build Texas' next large water park, "Typhoon Texas," which project leaders have promised will compete with the Schlitterbahn chain or Wet 'n' Wild Splash Town in Spring.

The $45 million park, targeted for opening in May 2016, has been the subject of three years of discrete planning.

"This is fantastic for the city of Katy and the greater Houston area," Katy Mayor Fabol Hughes said at the event last week. "The park is going to bring in people from Houston and places like Austin and Galveston and from miles around. This is a huge deal for our area."

The park will use a filter that will pump 70,000 gallons of water per minute and powerful slide pumps that will make for shorter lines at rides, said Keith Dalton, a business partner on the project with Ray Delaughter and Terry Hlavinka.

"Our park will offer the cleanest environment possible … we are going to have the cleanest water in Texas," Dalton said.

The park's 13 main rides will include body slides such as the 50-foot "Open AquaDrop." Tube slides such as the "Constrictor" will spin pairs of riders through series of loops, while raft slides such as the "Family 6 Boomerango" will send groups gliding up and down a 60-foot wall bearing a painting of the Texas flag.

The three main attractions will be a 25,000-square-foot wave pool - which Hlavinka said will be larger than the one at New Braunfel's Schlitterbahn - a 1,345-foot "lazy river" ride and a 48-foot-tall children's play structure.

The project's partners had initially approached Hughes with their idea, and the mayor embraced their vision, believing the park would bring publicity and sales-tax revenue to Katy.

Texas Capital Bank and other investors helped make project financing a reality, though Dalton, Delaughter and Hiavinka chose to keep plans close to the vest.

With the help of the Katy Area Economic Development Council, the partners chose a site near the Grand Parkway and close to where the mall will soon undergo a $25 million facelift and where a future boardwalk, hotel and convention center, restaurant strip and shopping center are planned.

"We wanted to build in this area right away, and at first, we thought the park could open a year ago, but it wasn't ready financially, organizationally or personnelwise," Hlavinka said. "We had to make sure everything would work - like traffic, which we did a study on to make sure we could handle the impact of that and other variables, which we are confident we can."

Typhoon Texas' design company, White Water West, which has planned some of the most-visited water parks around the world, such as the Bali Waterpark in Fushun, China and Mt. Olympus Water & Theme Park in Wisconsin, incorporated native plants into the landscape layout. Texas flags will be painted on building roofs and attractions.

While ticket prices have not been revealed, Hlavinka said they will be comparable to other large water park entry fees. He also did not reveal how much he expected the park to generate in revenue per day. The park also has about 20 more acres where it will expand to feature more rides and eventually build its own lodging.

"From a revenue-generating standpoint in the city, it looks to be a great project for them," said Ben Richardson, a Katy resident who attended the groundbreaking event. "I'm glad to see it's something like this that's a regional draw. You can take money from residents in the form of sales tax and never really do anything for the city, but if you can bring money in from outside of the city, then you're actually doing something for it.